Mubarek zone[a] was the name given to a Soviet-Uzbek project to promote Crimean Tatar settlement into the newly formed Mubarek District of the Uzbek SSR, instead of allowing for a return to their homeland in the Crimea. The project was very unpopular with Crimean Tatars, who wanted to return to Crimea instead of settling into the Uzbek desert. Many viewed the project as an extension of the wider Uzbek cotton scandal. The Mubarek District was established in 1978, and the whole settlement project was largely abandoned after the death of its mastermind, Sharof Rashidov in 1983.
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